How would this be possible? What effects will it have on the war? Long term effects? Short term? Is this ASB?
Your opinions, good people of AH.com.
Let´s see: FDR considered Stalin a trustworthy partner and saw de Gaulle as a would be military dictator and he almost bend over backwards to avoid war with Japan to be able to concentrate on making war on Germany. Butterflying the war away does not take much. Let´s see how this can be turned into an alliance.
POD is 1914: This time the Japanese honur their alliance with France and Britain. They send a powerful fleet into the Med, an Expeditionary Force too and supply arms for a price that covers the cost.
1919: Japanese relations with France and the British are much better than in OTL. Even the Americans begin to have doubts about Japan as an enemy. They rate this "possible but not probable".
1930: By this time anti-Japanese laws have turned the US-Japanese relations sour but Japan is still on good terms with the French and Brits.
1932: In light of the foreign relations backslash following the
invasion of Manchuria, the extreme Right and the Kwantung Army are reigned in.
1936: Japan signs(and fully respects) the
2nd London Naval Treaty. Note: The Mandates are neither fortified nor closed off to foreigners.
1938: The USA considers Germany by far the No.1 threat to peace. The likelyhood of war with Japan is rated down to "
theoretically possible".
1939: WW2 breaks out, Japan chooses pro-allied neutrality
1940: France falls, after the victorious BoB Japan offers the UK its assistance. The IJN takes over trade protection in SEA and the IO in exchange for a trade deal offering better acess to the British Empires markets.
1941: German-Japanese relations are getting tense as losses of Japanese merchant ships to german subs rise. German in return is POed by the loss of two raiders to IJA cruisers.